New Philosophy of Mind Blogs

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Re: Plato’s PhaedoPlato tries to defend his theory of dualism, specifically the fact that although the human body is destructible, the soul is immortal. The material world is destructible, changeable and unpredictable. You could cut a triangle out of construction paper. You could also completely destroy the existence of that triangle by snipping off the three angles and creating a completely new shape, namely a hexagon. The actual idea or form of that triangle is completely indestructible, because it is part of the realm of intellect, and separate from the material world. Plato compares the destructible triangle that is part of the material world to the “destructible” human body that is capable of death at any stage. He would then compare the “idea” or “universal forml” of the triangle (the rule of triangularity) to the soul, in that they are indestructible. The only problem with this defense is that although the physical body is comparable to a paper triangle, the form or idea of the triangle is contained within the human mind and has no substance or existence without a human mind to facilitate such ideas or forms. The only way that the theory of triangularity will continue to exist is if there are human beings, more specifically minds, to be occupied by such theories. Just because the idea of a particular universal theory is seemingly indestructible to the human mind, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the theory can survive without the mind. With this, it doesn’t validly prove that the soul is indestructible and immortal.

The Reasoner

Today my self-esteem hit an all time low when I stumbled across an argument proving conclusively that I don't exist. I’m quite distressed. This probably explains why my jeans are so loose-fitting. What’s equally upsetting is that I learned that non-existence does not exempt one from local or federal taxes.